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I would recommend this book to anyone looking to hike the San Bernardino National Forest. Great book. All the hikes are well described with easy to follow instructions.
It's a great book. I have used many of the trails described in this book as a jumping-off point for cross-country hiking in the area. This is the BEST book to get if your exploration is going to be in the eastern part of the Transverse Range.
One of the first things I did was buy a copy of this book (an earlier edition). The new edition (this book, which I got as soon as it came out) has removed these hikes and added a few good ones, notably expanding the section from the earlier edition that covers the Santa Rosa Mountains.The new author's writing melds seamlessly with Robinson's. I moved to Redlands, California five years ago.
The historical sketches for each area are brief but useful (Robinson has written a number of books on California history (some out of print) which are more detailed and also worth a read).Bottom line; there's a lot of books about hiking in southern California. Robinson's book about hikes in the San Gabriels is also worth getting if you plan to hike there. I have since read it cover to cover about 6 times, copied pages for individual hikes countless times to take along, and have walked almost every trail in the San Bernardinos and a lot of the trails in the San Jacintos.
This book is well organized, well written, and an indispensible resource for anyone looking for a walk in the mountains outside the Inland Empire.The old edition included many trails which are now inaccessible, mostly on the southern face of Yucaipa Ridge, closed now due to private property owners blocking access and the Morongo Indians prohibiting trailhead access on their reservation.
I read the book and realized how little I have seen of the local mountains and all they offer. This book is a must-read for anyone who enjoys hiking and wants to experience the San Bernardino National Forest. I highly recommend it to anyone who ventures into the San Bernardino wilderness. The book details the location and degree of difficulty of each trail, which is very helpful in planning your trips. I bought it after a hike to the summit of Mt. San Gorgonio, when I realized I was not very well prepared and needed some good advice.
I would certainly delete hikes that are located in amusement parks, and consider instead more cross country locations and trails utilizing abandoned fire roads, if necessary, to keep the "100". I also like the new map which is in color and on gloss stock, though I do miss the topography lines which have been omitted, making it less useful on the trail.One concern, is about some of the hikes that are replacements for a handful of the originals, as I'm finding it hard to consider them hikes. That said, it is still a great book, and David Money Harris is certainly keeping the legacy alive. Still the best guide for local hikes in the San Bernardino Mountains, though I'm a little nostalgic about John Robinson's retirement (the original author of the book, that I have carried on many a hike since the early 80's). I like the fact that the new book is slightly larger, which makes the photographs easier to examine.
This new edition of the book includes key GPS way points and multiple tables of the various hikes to make finding a hike that matches your criteria as easy as it could be.Furthermore, the descriptions of each hike are sufficient to permit the reader to determine if the hike would be of interest.The book concentrates on San Bernardino but also covers the Santa Rosa hikes more extensively than I have seen anywhere else. A revised edition of a classic book on hiking San Bernardino mountains.
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